by Charles Kirkland, Jr.
Zendaya plays a tennis coach who is willing to try anything to get her husband/client to start winning again in the tennis drama, Challengers.
Art and Patrick are a young tennis duo. Winning together and ruling the youth division, they are inseparable until they see Tashi. Tashi plays with an inexhaustible fire and passion that immediately draws the attention of the boys. The fact that she is drop-dead gorgeous doesn’t hurt either. The competition between Art and Patrick is on. Art eventually wins, marrying Tashi, getting her to be his coach, and becoming a star on the tennis circuit. Now, nearing the end of his career, Tashi and Patrick find themselves evaluating their existence as Patrick has fallen on a losing streak. The whole process is ratcheted up when Patrick re-surfaces as a challenge to everything Tashi and Art are.
Written by Justin Kuritzkes, Challengers stars Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor. The romantic drama is directed by visionary director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Bones And All).
Guadagnino is crafting a career of making intimate and intense films about love and consequences. This film is exactly that. Provocative and stylish in its presentation, Guadagnino wastes not a single scene in making this film that delves deeply into character and motivations.
Accordingly, Zendaya is Guadagnino’s muse. She is the central focus of the film. A mystery and an enigma, Tashi is captivating not only to Art and Patrick but to the viewers as well. Her power is hers. Her motivations are nearly invisible but at the same time obvious. Tashi is a master manipulator from the moment we lay eyes upon her and that is fun.
The other incredibly fun part of the movie is the music composition by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, the duo formerly known as Nine Inch Nails. (Technically, Reznor is the founding member of Nails and Ross joined later.) The duo scored a Grammy for their work on The Social Network and have been working together most recently in Michael Fassbender’s, The Killer. The soundtrack in this movie is powerful and overwhelming at times. The music drives scenes in a way that the actors cannot, compelling the engagement of the viewers in scenes that may not be worthy of attention.
Here is the problem. This film is more like a prestige film than a summer romance drama. Except for a couple of tennis scenes (one where the point of view is from a tennis ball being played) the film lags in its service. There is only one person that the audience is given reason to care about so when she is off-screen, interest wanes.
Rated R for language throughout, some sexual content, and graphic nudity, Challengers serves solely as a vehicle for the acting prowess of Zendaya, nothing more. The soundtrack will fool you into thinking that this film is more significant than it is.
Grade: C-